Why doesn't windows authentication work with host alias'?

Normally accessing a Windows share is accomplished using a UNC path e.g. \servershare where “server” is the real hostname of the Windows machine. \server.domain.comshare also works.

However access does not appear to work using host alias’. For example if you put this in the hostile:

192.168.1.5   server   server-alias

Both will be pingable, however share access fails using \server-aliasshare.

I’m aware SMB access uses NTLM authentication, I suppose kerberos in a domain environment. So I suspect NTLM might not support alias’ like this. Is this the case?